Chapter 310: Dekan's Encounter with the Gray Demon |
Upon reaching the end of the third floor of the Demon Realm hospital, one's attention was immediately seized by a grand staircase. The marble steps gleamed dimly under the lamplight, and the relief carvings on the ceiling above seemed to depict countless tales of the Demon Realm.
Dekan followed the long staircase up to the fourth floor.
This was the highest level he could currently access.
He quickly found the floor supervisor's office on the fourth floor. After stating his intention and relaying the relevant information, Dekan was granted temporary permission to proceed to the fifth floor to submit his cross-department physician application.
Eve, as Dekan's chosen assistant, was also permitted to accompany him.
After all, if Dekan didn't keep her with him at all times, she would quickly be summoned away by other departments' tasks.
Dekan followed a similar grand staircase up to the fifth floor.
Eve looked around with wide, anxious eyes. She had never been to a place of this caliber before.
Dekan, meanwhile, walked with casual indifference.
They finally arrived at the director's door. Dekan signaled Eve with a glance to wait for him here.
Eve nodded hurriedly and retreated to a safe distance, standing against the wall like a student who'd been put in the corner.
Knock, knock.
Dekan rapped lightly on the director's door.
"Come in."
After receiving the voice of permission from within, Dekan pushed open the heavy double doors of solid wood.
Inside the sprawling, almost absurdly spacious office sat a demon, teacup raised, the faintest trace of a smile playing at the corner of her lips.
Without question, this was Director Annushka.
She was a demon of exquisite features, her bearing a perfect embodiment of androgynous beauty -- elegant in posture, yet making no effort to conceal the oppressive aura that came with being an eighth-rank demon.
However, the moment she noticed her visitor was a male demon, the relatively pleasant look in her eyes shifted to undisguised disdain.
She looked as though she might throw Dekan out at any moment.
Dekan's first impression upon surveying the director's office was also tinged with a flash of disappointment.
No swimming pool.
"What is wrong with you?"
Shijiang read Dekan's thought and asked through their mental link.
No hospital in existence would have a swimming pool.
"When I become director, the first thing I'm doing is filling this hospital with the spirit of joy."
Dekan replied through thought.
With extraordinary conviction.
But he quickly refocused his attention on the director before him.
He could also feel the subtle shift in her attitude toward him.
"I'd like to apply for a concurrent position in the Psychiatry Department."
Dekan stated his request concisely.
Director Annushka nodded, her expression softening slightly.
"I'm heartened to hear that you wish to take on cross-department work during wartime when physicians are in such short supply."
Annushka began with a note of praise, but her tone quickly sharpened as she looked at Dekan.
"But are you aware of the consequences of failure?"
"I'll stake my life on my professional competence."
Dekan answered with composure.
"Fine, then go ahead and try. The moment your Devil Points hit zero, I'll have you executed on the spot."
After the director approved the application, Dekan could instantly feel certain content within his demon bracelet unlocking -- permissions tied to the Psychiatry Department.
But before Dekan could say anything more, Annushka waved her hand with ill-concealed impatience, gesturing for him to leave.
She apparently had no desire to continue breathing the same air as him.
Dekan gave a polished, professional nod and turned to leave.
He didn't care in the slightest about the director's slight.
What Dekan loved most was precisely the kind of demon that harbored deep malice toward him.
Because when the time came to strike, he wouldn't feel an ounce of guilt -- and it would even add a fair bit of enjoyment.
However --
just as Dekan grasped the door handle and was about to pull it open, he felt someone on the other side trying to open the door as well.
The person had urgent business with the director and, despite knowing this was the director's office, pushed the door open without a moment's hesitation.
Dekan released the handle and took a cautious step back.
The next instant, the door swung open.
Standing in the doorway was a demon with waist-length gray hair, her gaze coolly detached as she surveyed the interior of the director's office.
Even with her hair unkempt and much of her face still wrapped in bandages, the lips and eyes that were exposed hinted at a beauty of transcendent, otherworldly caliber -- the kind rarely seen even in the human kingdoms.
Since Dekan was standing directly in front of her, the dragon demon filled her field of vision first.
The red-haired dragon demon that was Dekan gave a respectful nod, studied her posture for a brief moment, then stepped aside to his left to clear her path.
Behind Dekan --
Director Annushka had already risen to her feet, her expression transforming as though winter had melted into early spring. She greeted the gray-haired demon with an unusually warm tone:
"You're awake?"
Like someone who had finally laid eyes on the person she most wanted to see.
"Mm."
The gray-haired demon responded with cool disinterest, shifting her gaze slightly to the left.
While listening to the brief exchange between the director and the gray-haired demon, Dekan kept up the pretense of someone who knew his place and headed toward the exit.
Without question, this gray-haired demon who looked even more imperious than the director herself was the rumored Great Demon of the hospital.
But it was hard to say whether encountering his target prematurely was a good thing or a bad thing.
He could at least establish a few preliminary details about the target.
But now was not the right moment to meet her.
The less of an impression he left on her, the simpler things would be when he made his move later.
Just as Dekan was striding briskly past her on her left --
"Stop."
The gray-haired demon suddenly spoke, halting him.
Her voice was weak, carrying a note of weariness, yet her tone was extraordinarily guarded -- as though she had encountered a sworn enemy.
Dekan turned back with a puzzled expression.
The other party was still studying him.
Dekan, for his part, stood with the air of someone with nothing to hide, inviting her scrutiny.
The gray-haired demon appeared to wrestle with something for a moment. Her initially dim pupils gradually regained a measure of clarity and focus.
More than examining Dekan's appearance, it was as though she was verifying his demeanor and bearing. Once she had, her wariness toward Dekan visibly diminished.
"I'm sorry. My mind isn't quite clear yet."
The gray-haired demon pressed a hand to her forehead, seemingly reflecting on her own behavior.
To think she had mistaken a demon whose appearance and presence were utterly different for that person in her memory.
It had to be her still-unrecovered psyche being overly sensitive and fragile after her injuries.
She was seeing that master of effortless disguise in everyone she looked at.
Just as the gray-haired demon was about to dismiss Dekan and step into the director's office --
her foot, which had just begun to move --
froze in place once more.
The gray-haired demon stood still, her expression flickering with surprise.
She turned back.
What she saw was --
Dekan, as though it were the most natural thing in the world --
had reached back and firmly grasped her slender wrist.
In that instant --
every demon present, inside and outside the director's office, except for Dekan himself, went completely still.
Dead silence.
"What are you thinking?!"
Shijiang's voice erupted in Dekan's mind.
The gray-haired demon had already chosen to let Dekan pass! The optimal move should have been to simply walk past her!
Probing a target who was already suspicious of him at a time like this was nothing short of suicidal!
"I think I've discovered something interesting."
Dekan replied through thought.
He had keenly picked up on the subtle dynamic between the director and the gray-haired demon.
First, the director's affection for the gray-haired demon seemed extraordinarily high.
Second, the gray-haired demon also appeared to be a highly rational demon -- and she was very weak right now, posing minimal danger.
So Dekan wanted to test the waters and see --
could he bait the director into a rage?
After all, if he could crank the enemy's aggro meter up now, he'd already be halfway to victory when the time came to strike.
"?"
The gray-haired demon looked at Dekan quizzically.
It seemed as though he had something to say to her after grabbing her wrist.
But Dekan hadn't said anything yet.
The director, Annushka, who moments ago had still worn a trace of a smile, now twisted her features into something savage and terrifying. She bit down hard on her lip, her glare fixed on Dekan's hand where it gripped the gray-haired demon's wrist.
It was as if the temperature of the entire director's office had dropped several degrees.
"Let go!"
The director's voice, dripping with murderous intent, reverberated through the room.
The instant he heard it --
the corner of Dekan's mouth curled up involuntarily.
He paid absolutely no heed to the overwhelming sense of mortal danger radiating from the director's direction.
He simply looked the gray-haired demon in the eye, smiled, and said:
"If you ever need any help, please come find me in the Psychiatry Department. Mental fatigue, psychological disorders, recurring nightmares, and other conditions of the mind are my specialty."
"..."
The gray-haired demon was about to refuse, but just as the words reached her lips, she hesitated.
For the time being, she would need to convalesce at the hospital until her physical wounds healed.
In that case, why not take the opportunity to visit the Psychiatry Department as well?
It was a sound suggestion.
And the strong sense of professional confidence radiating from this doctor --
made the gray-haired demon feel, despite herself, that he might actually have real skills to back it up.
While the gray-haired demon deliberated -- and Dekan still held her wrist --
the director finally could no longer contain her terrifying killing intent.
Her form seemed to blur like a phantom, and in the space of a blink, she appeared beside Dekan and the gray-haired demon. She seized Dekan's wrist.
The veins bulging across the back of her hand looked as though they wanted to crush his wrist to powder, yet she was restraining herself with every last shred of willpower.
"Release your hand."
The director issued her final warning in a voice of frigid command.
Were it not for the hospital's rules and the fact that she was standing before her superior, she would have torn this red-haired dragon demon in half without a moment's hesitation.
In that moment --
at the doorway of the director's office --
Dekan stood with a composed smile, his hand still clasping the gray-haired demon's wrist, as though trying to hold her in place.
The gray-haired demon hovered in a daze tinged with lucidity, her gaze meeting Dekan's across the short distance.
And the director stood between them, hand clamped down on Dekan's wrist, seething with murderous rage as she tried to stop Dekan from continuing to court the gray-haired demon.
Together, they formed a scene that could have been a world-famous painting.
"This..."
Eve, out in the corridor, looked as though she'd lost her very soul.
The suffocating killing intent and oppressive aura radiating from the eighth-rank director alone was nearly enough to make her burst into tears.
And what had that bastard doctor even done in there? He'd only gone to submit an application!
How had he created this kind of genuinely-going-to-die Shuraba of a scene?!
In a hellscape like this, if she didn't get far away, she'd be dead before she even knew what hit her!
But Eve's legs had already gone to jelly. The moment she tried to run, she collapsed onto the floor and could only desperately drag herself backward.
...
Dekan finally shifted his gaze to Director Annushka.
Without question, his probing had been super effective.
The director was blood-furious.
She was indeed infatuated with -- no, deeply enamored with -- this gray-haired demon.
It seemed like he could crank her aggro even higher.
Maybe even take out this eighth-rank demon ahead of schedule.
Dekan didn't like being touched by others, but he suppressed the instinct to break free.
If the director dared to ignore the rules and make the first move, he could activate his damage-reflect set right there and then to deal with her.
That way, Dekan, having acted in legitimate self-defense, wouldn't count as having harmed any staff or patient.
"I'm merely fulfilling a physician's duty. Or is it that you haven't even noticed the treatment this lady requires?"
Dekan said to Annushka with narrowed eyes and a smile.
"And have you considered -- compared to a savage, unhinged demon -- she might actually need a calm, rational one to listen to what's on her mind?"
Neither his tone nor his bearing yielded an inch.
As if he were the one in control here.
"Good... very good..."
Just as Annushka's voice trembled with fury, and the hand gripping Dekan's wrist was on the verge of losing all restraint --
"I'll come find you in the Psychiatry Department before I'm discharged."
The gray-haired demon said to Dekan, her tone calm and even.
Shattering the atmosphere that had been hurtling toward its breaking point.
For some reason --
she simply felt this red-haired dragon demon possessed some kind of unique magnetism.
Perhaps he really could untangle the knots in her heart.
"My Lady?!"
Annushka stared at the gray-haired demon in disbelief.
The gray-haired demon had actually chosen to side with this doctor?!
The unbearable resentment threatening to burst from her chest, and the increasingly vivid bitterness coursing through her veins, left Annushka's expression twisted between ferocity and something that looked like barely concealed heartbreak.
But she couldn't direct her fury at the gray-haired demon -- she could only pin Dekan with a death glare.
"I'll be waiting."
Ignoring Annushka entirely, Dekan addressed the gray-haired demon with impeccable courtesy.
"No! I won't allow it!! I'm revoking your cross-department application!!"
Annushka blurted out, as though struck by a flash of desperate inspiration.
The red-haired dragon demon, however, wore the expression of a winner. His gaze carried just a hint of provocation as he looked at Annushka.
His face all but saying: I've been waiting to see this pathetic, flustered look on you.
"Annushka. Enough."
The gray-haired demon had finally grown impatient as well.
From the very start, Annushka had been behaving without a shred of rationality -- nothing like the composure expected of a high-ranking official in a strategic location.
It was making the gray-haired demon question whether someone like this was even fit to continue serving as the army group hospital's director.
"!!..."
Annushka clenched her teeth. She finally realized the gravity of the situation.
This doctor -- he had been trying to provoke her from the very beginning!
Though he was only a feeble fifth-rank, he was the kind of vile demon who reveled in manipulating minds!
He had seen right through Annushka's feelings for the gray-haired demon.
And then, as though death held no fear for him, he had bet his life for the sheer thrill of it, goading her into losing her head.
He had exploited -- and trampled upon -- her most precious, most cherished feelings of admiration!
Unforgivable!!
But as things stood now, by the time Annushka had recognized the trap, she had already played directly into the red-haired dragon demon's hands.